» Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:17 pm
Save before you go out any door in a town, the sods can spawn as you go outside, not just when you first enter a town, but any time you go out a door in that town. They always spawn in the same spot in each location, so once you work out where to expect them, it is easier to check, several places like Markarth, Dawnstar and Windhelm can have two groups spawning in two different locations at the same time. You only have one attack in a town for the day, once you have an attack you are safe to do what ever you want in that town without becoming a nervous wreck running for the vampire spawn spot all the time.
Be careful about going too far from the vampire spawn location if you think you might get an attack, if you go up to Dragonsreach and get an attack as you come out, you are going to have to be real inventive to get to the main gate in time to save all your NPC's, Adrianne will be the first to die. You could take precautions, leave a follower near the gate, make sure your NPC's are well armed by reverse pickpocketing some decent weapons on to them, some health potions. But still you take a risk going so far from where an attack could occur.
In some locations the vampires will spawn in a walled town as you go by the stables, which can cause problems, Whiterun is one such location, Riften is likely another. You could walk by Whiterun and never realise you caused an attack. Same with the smaller towns, going near the town can cause an attack.
Lower level characters are likely to get town attacks with training wheels, the game will go easy on them. Over achievers who did everything are very likely to be in for a challenge if they choose to visit towns. Even high level characters who never did much, and have hardly any random events of note, could end up being inundated with vampire attacks. Vampire characters get it a bit easier than those who stick with the Dawnguard, but then vampires have to put up with being personally attacked by the Dawnguard as well as vampire attacks.
You can just avoid the whole thing, go off and do the Dawnguard questline and have a good time. You have to visit one town Dragon Bridge, if you get an attack they will spawn a long way up the road, you can kill them before they get any where near any NPC's. If you have to visit the Mage's College, I never got an attack on Winterhold and two of my characters got a lot of attacks. Even the dragons failed to show up at Winterhold for once.